Chapter 3 – A Morning by the Lake

Harry awoke the next morning wonderfully rested. It was hard to believe that it was only yesterday that he left the Dursley's home. He got out of bed and pulled a shirt on before tiptoeing out of the room so he wouldn't disturb Ron. He closed the door very slowly listening to it squeak as a voice startled him.

"Morning, Harry," Ginny said nonchalantly.

Harry nearly jumped out of his skin before he settled and said, "Ginny what are you doing up here?"

"I came up to see if you were awake yet," she said as she pulled him into a tight hug.

His heart leapt as he wrapped his arms around her. He was instantly awake as he felt his stomach grumble into Ginny's.

"Hungry, Harry?" she said, giggling at Harry's bodily noises.

"A little bit," said Harry as he blushed, a bit embarrassed by his stomach's unannounced musings.

"How about a bite to eat then?" Ginny replied.

"Yeah, sounds good," Harry muttered, "sounds good."

They walked downstairs into the kitchen where Mrs. Weasley was already up and preparing breakfast.

"Good morning, Harry, Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley proclaimed as they shuffled in, "I making eggs, bacon, and sausage so help yourself as they come off the stove."

Harry could smell the frying bacon as it sizzled in the pan. Mrs. Weasley had charmed a fork to stand watch over it, flipping each piece as it started to cook through, in order to keep the cooking nice and even. The eggs were cracking themselves over a bowl, and a wire whisk was scrambling them of it's own accord. Mrs. Weasley was standing over the eggs in the pan, moving them around continuously so they wouldn't burn with a spatula in her left hand. Her right hand held her wand which was pointed at the sausages turning them when they had browned on each side. It was no time before there was a plateful of each on the table and Harry and Ginny took their first helpings.

"Wow, Mrs. Weasley, the bacon is great, it's amazing how you keep it from getting crunchy, but still cook it through." Harry said. "And the bangers are amazing too! I think I need to have you give me a few lessons, I'll need to know this stuff when I leave." He still didn't have the heart to tell her that Ron and Ginny would be following him. He couldn't drop something like that on her just yet, it was quite a lot to swallow at once. It would be better to tell her when the subject came up naturally, and place most of the blame on them, they hadn't exactly given him much choice.

"Don't worry, Harry, Ginny already knows how to do all this. She can take care of it," came Mrs. Weasley's voice through his thoughts.

Harry continued to eat for a few seconds before the words truly sunk in, and his slowing chew showed his surprise. He was stunned, and by the look on Ginny's face she was too. "What did you say Mrs. Weasley?"

"I said 'Don't worry, Harry, Ginny already knows how to do all this,'" Mrs. Weasley replied.

"How did you find out? Oh Merlin's beard, I'm sorry Mrs. Weasley, I hope you aren't angry with me," Harry blabbed out at high speed.

"No Harry, I'm not mad at you. I'm certainly not happy, but it isn't your fault. I overheard your conversation with Ginny yesterday and—"

"Wait a minute, mum," Ginny interrupted, "how did you overhear our conversation when you were at the dinner table? We were upstairs in Ron's room."

"Well... I heard yelling, and dinner was just getting on the table, so I sent Ron to tell you that dinner was ready. When you didn't come I told him that I'd go and get you." Mrs. Weasley started. "When I got upstairs I heard sobs and felt a very emotional atmosphere. I listened in and when Harry told you that you have to listen to his every order, even if it means leaving him to die in order to save yourself, I decided to leave and let you come down yourselves. I didn't want to eavesdrop, but as a mother I had to. When 'I love you' gets into the picture, it becomes quite a serious situation."

"HOW DARE YOU, MUM? HOW COULD YOU HAVE LISTENED IN ON OUR CONVERSATION? THAT WAS PERSONAL! I CAN'T—"

"Ginny, calm down!" Harry interjected. "This is actually a good thing I think. She's letting you come, and she isn't ripping my head off! Please stop yelling, I quite like my head."

"I... I guess you're right, Harry," Ginny said much more calmly, holding the anger just below the surface. Then she turned to her mother and let the anger peak out, "Never again, mum," she said with great intensity.

"As long as there isn't anymore life threatening decisions to listen in on, then I won't be listening," Mrs. Weasley said. "Oh, and Harry, you take care of my little girl, you understand? I want you to protect her from everything out there, don't you dare let her get hurt."

"Yes ma'am. I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if she got hurt..." Harry replied.

"Your word is good enough for me, Harry," Mrs. Weasley was smiling. "Now you two go out back and have a chat or something. I'll keep Ron busy in the house with Bill and Charlie getting ready for the wedding. Fleur will be returning late tonight, just after dinner. Everyone is going to be here. It will be nice to have one last Weasley family dinner with you Harry. Once the wedding passes by Bill will be off to his new home, Fleur has had him looking for suitable houses for ages now. He thinks he may have found one, and it's not too far, so he will be ready for a call by the Order any time. Though, I think he's given enough."

"Oh, well, it will be nice to have one last dinner before we have guests," Harry said, for lack of any other coherent response.

"Yes, yes it will be. Now you two get going and walk around outside for a while, pick something from the garden, or have a walk into town, actually, on second though, go to the lake out back. It's beautiful this time of year," Mrs. Weasley suggested.

They walked out the back door, and took course straight for the garden. As they were walking Ginny noticed that Harry was deep in thought.

"What is it, Harry?" she asked.

"It's nothing, actually kind of stupid... but... since when you guys have a lake?" he asked.

"Harry," Ginny scolded, "you're so thickheaded. It's just beyond the garden. You never noticed it before?"

"Maybe I have, but if I've seen it before I don't remember it," Harry responded, not paying attention to where he was going, almost stepping on some angered gnomes.

They walked up a slight incline and then Harry saw it, clearly a prominent part of the Burrow's landscape, the lake. It was more like and oversized pond, but it was beautiful. The water rippled toward the edge as little school of fish jumped about close to the center.

"Wow, Ginny, it's beautiful here," Harry exclaimed.

They slowly walked around the edge of the lake until they came to a weeping birch. They sat down under its perfect shade and lounged for a long time listening to the sounds of nature.

Ginny broke the silence. "Harry... erm... what is this?" she asked, holding up the grimy mirror Harry had sent to her.

"Merlin's beard! I completely forgot about that, I'm sorry Ginny, I should have told you yesterday," Harry replied. "Well, you see, it's a two way mirror. I have the other one. Whenever you need to talk to me, all you have to do it speak my name into it and I will be able to hear you on the other side. Sirius gave one to me back before... well... you know. I had Hedwig get the other and now I've got it up in my trunk."

"Oh goodness, Harry, that's a brilliant idea," Ginny said, eyes gleaming.

"Well, it was, except now you're going to be with me so it hardly makes a difference does it?" Harry asked.

"That doesn't mean we can't use them for something else though right?" Ginny asked.

"I guess so," Harry responded. "There are a few other things I need to tell you about too. Remember yesterday when I said we needed to have a chat? Well, here it is. You've got to know what we are up against." Harry paused for a second, searching for the right place to begin. "Alright, horcruxes—"

"What are those?" Ginny asked.

"Let me finish this, Ginny, hopefully I'll have answered all your questions before you ask them, this is a lot to get through and a lot to swallow, it best be in one shot."

"Okay."

"Okay, horcruxes. They are pretty much the darkest magic you can possibly do. In essence, when you make a horcrux, you tear your soul into two pieces, and insert the piece you tore off into another thing." Ginny was looking at Harry completely awestruck by his words. "By doing that, you can protect that piece of your soul from being destroyed, making you immortal in a sense, since the soul can't move on if different parts of it are in different places. To kill someone who has made a horcrux, you have to destroy the horcrux first, then destroy the part of the soul residing in the persons body." Harry stopped waiting for Ginny to ask him a question.

"How do you make one of these things?"

"I don't know exactly, but I know that you have to commit murder. Since killing another person in cold blood wreaks havoc on the soul, a wizard can take advantage of the scarring that has taken place, and cast a spell that rips a chunk of soul out and puts it into something."

"Alright so, obviously Voldemort has one of these things and you've got to destroy it before we kill him, right?" Ginny asked.

"Not one horcrux Ginny, several horcruxes. Voldemort had a total of six at one point, splitting his soul into seven pieces. He thought it would make him invincible." Ginny had the same face Harry remembered having when he found out this terrible truth. "No wizard has ever done that to themselves, except Tom. It's why he looks the way he does. But we don't have to find six. We destroyed on in your first year. The diary. Dumbledore destroyed another recently, a ring that was once Slytherin's. And the night... the night he.. he... died, we had been looking for another, the locket. We got a locket, but it wasn't the right one," Harry said as he pulled the fake horcrux out of his pocket, also pulling out the delicate ruby necklace Ginny had given him.

Ginny looked at him, crying tearlessly, she looked at what Harry had in his hands. Harry thought a million things must be going through her head when suddenly she said, "You keep it with you?"

"Yeah, it reminds me what happened that night, and how I still have to find the real locket, and make sure its—"

"No, Harry, you keep my necklace with you?" Ginny corrected him.

"Uh..." Harry was speechless. He didn't know what to say, he couldn't tell her why he really carried it with him, but found no other choice. "I keep it with me as a reminder as well. The horcrux tells me what I've got to do. And this... this necklace tells me why I've got to do it," Harry said, confidence ringing in every syllable.

"Oh, Harry." Ginny pulled him into a binding hug and kissed him lovingly. "I can't believe you keep it with you, it's so cute," she kissed him again, "and I hope you never," kiss, "never," kiss, "ever," kiss, "lose it," she said adding one more lingering kiss.

Harry was completely unaware of his surroundings and simply melted into her. He sat there with his legs crossed. She was sitting on his lap with her legs to the side and her arms around his neck. He continued to kiss her for what seemed like hours before they laid down on their sides and cuddled under the shade of the weeping birch for what was the better part of the morning.

SP

It was almost one o'clock when they finally made the voyage back to the Burrow. Entering through the back door, Harry and Ginny found themselves in the midst of Mrs. Weasley preparing lunch. It was not anything complicated, but was still quite a scary sight to the unsuspecting eye. Knives were flying around the room, as if on auto pilot. A bread knife was cutting up a loaf of bread that was fresh from the oven. The bread was then landing on a plate which flew across the kitchen to the table where a ham was being sliced by a menacing carving knife at high speed. The sliced ham was being put onto the bread by Mrs. Weasley. Apparently she was not confident with the knife's ability to do that job. As she finished off each sandwich with a slice of Swiss cheese, which was being cut in a similar fashion to the ham, she put a spurt of mustard on and placed them on another plate, which was immediately attacked by a cleaver, cutting each sandwich in two.

"Oh Merlin, be careful you two!" she cried out. "There is a lot of cutlery flying about in here!"

"Yes mum, we noticed," Ginny replied, then turning to Harry muttered, "of course we bloody noticed. We'd have been killed if we hadn't."

Harry chuckled his approval and they made their way past the table into the living room. They walked in to find Ron snoozing on the couch, a letter in his hand, and another one on the table.

"I wonder what these are about," Harry stated as they moved toward the loveseat next to the couch Ron was laying on.

"I imagine at least one of them is from Hermione," Ginny said.

"Yeah, that would make sense. She's probably bombarding him with mail again."

"Harry, she's just worried," Ginny said, an annoyed look on her face.

"I know, it's just, don't you think three letters in a day is a bit excessive?"

"Well, three is a bit much, but once or twice isn't bad if she forgot something in her original letter. Especially if Ron is responding."

"I guess so," Harry said as he leaned over to look at the letter on the coffee table. It was written on thick, official looking parchment. The ink was green and curling on its front above where the seal once was. He unfolded the letter and found the plain stolid writing of Professor McGonagall. "Ginny, look, it's a letter from Hogwarts."

"Really? It must be about next year!" Ginny said excited to know the letters contents. "Read it Harry!"

Harry immediately began to read. "It says 'Dear Hogwarts students, as a result of the happenings at the end of last year, it is my obligation to inform you that Hogwarts will not be opening as a school of witchcraft and wizardry for the fall semester as usual. Though, this year it will open as planned for different reasons. Hogwarts will now become a training school for all witches and wizards interested in learning magical self defense. Anyone may apply, but must either be of age, or have the consent of their legal guardian. More information will come when the board of governors has convened on this subject and completes the formalities with the Ministry. I hope to see you all in the fall. –Professor Minerva McGonagall, Headmistress, Hogwarts School of Self Defense.'" Harry stopped and stared down at the letter before him, mouth agape in awe.

"Oh goodness, that's quite a change, do you think they will get any students, Harry?" Ginny asked.

"I don't know. They will certainly get several adults attention, but I'm not sure about the former students. I doubt many parents will be so quick to send their children off to a school of defense. I expect it will be one of Voldemort's number one targets," Harry said. "He won't destroy the school though. He won't risk a battle that could tear it apart. Hogwarts was his only home, he'll want to kill everyone there and claim it for himself." Harry noticed the quizzical look on Ginny's face and quickly explained what he had learned about Voldemort's early life through the memories.

"It doesn't matter either way does it?" Ginny said. "Either way he'll try to kill everyone, even if its some over planned scheme."

"Yeah, he will. We should actually be even more aware. He will want to be secretive about his plans."

"Exactly."

Harry stood there with Ginny for a moment and then remembered the other letter. He walked over to the couch and moved to take the letter which was still clutched in Ron's hand. As his fingers made contact, Ron jumped slightly and woke up.

"Huh—? Who's there?" he said.

"Its just me, Ron," Harry explained.

"Oh... Wait— I've got a letter to show you," Ron replied.

"Yes, Ron, we know, we just read the one from Hogwarts. The one in your hand is Hermione's response to the letter she got from Hogwarts I assume?" Ginny said, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Uh... yeah, it is," said Ron dumbly, sitting up to shake off his sleep. "She said something or another about Hogwarts and then went on to things about the Order or whatever. Here, you read it."

Ron handed the letter to Ginny, who unfolded it and began to read. Harry read over her shoulder.

Dear Ron,

I just got the letter from Hogwarts explaining how the school is being changed. I am surprised that they decided to keep it open and even more surprised that they changed it so that academics are not most important anymore. Though it makes sense that if the school was going to close that they would make it into a defense school so it can still serve a purpose.

The Order is pretty shaky since Dumbledore's death. You probably already know a bit about that, but members have been in and out of my house a lot over the past week and a half. They stop off to check in, keep me up to date on what's going on, and make sure the protection wards are still working (they set them up right after I got home, I can't remember if I told you).

Since the Hogwarts business is all sorted out, McGonagall sent me and owl telling me that she would send the Order members in shifts to guard my parents. She says that the whole foundation of the Order was broken, but now she has the time to mend it. It was obvious that she was Dumbledore's second in command, so she's taken it upon herself to make the decisions for the Order now. She is following the plans Dumbledore told her about, but he did like to keep a lot to himself. I haven't told her exactly what we are going to be up to, that's Harry's job, but I did tell her we wouldn't be coming to Hogwarts again, and that we might need to ask for help from the Order at any point in time. I figure McGonagall will let Harry take people if he needs them, but she's going to want to know why.

Anyway, since she's putting Order members at my house to protect my parents, I'm free to come out to the Burrow and see the wedding. I think I will come tomorrow morning or even tonight, ask your mum and send a response.

Looking forward to seeing you,

Hermione

"Well that's good news," Ginny said.

"Yeah, it's been too long since we've seen Hermione, even if it's only been a little more than a week," Harry added.

"Well, you can expect to see her tonight. I told mum and she said it's no problem, so I owled Hermione with the good news," Ron said, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Hey— Where were you two anyway?" he added.

"We were at that weeping birch near the pond," Ginny said.

"Wait... mum said that you left early this morning after she made the first round of breakfast. Do you mean to tell me you were at that tree all morning? What were you doing?"

"Er... Ron, I don't think you want to know what we were up to," Harry interjected.

Ron eyed him suspiciously and then said, "Oh... I expect you were snogging weren't you? Well, I'm glad to hear you are back together, I didn't much like the idea of you two being in a row while Ginny's at Hogwarts and we are out hunting down the... erm... things."

"Well, no worries there, being as Ginny is coming with us," Harry said, thinking this was going to be the only opportunity he had to slip that little fact into conversation.

"Well as long as that's— WHAT?" Ron screamed, not quite absorbing Harry's words right away. "GINNY CAN NOT COME WITH US! IT'S MUCH TOO DANGER—"

"I AM PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF HANDLING MYSELF, RON! I'M TWICE THE DUELER YOU ARE!" Ginny yelled.

They continued to shout at each other until Harry could take no more. He shot bright red sparks in the air making loud snapping noises. "BOTH OF YOU! Stop fighting! Ginny, he's your brother, he's naturally protective. Ron, I'm sorry but she's coming, you'll just have to deal with it. She's as good a dueler as you, and just as clever as well. Besides, your mum has already agreed."

"Argh," Ron said, slinking off to the kitchen to get the sandwiches Mrs. Weasley had prepared.

Once he was in the kitchen and out of direct hearing range Ginny spoke. "Well that went well didn't it?"

"Yes, it certainly did," Harry responded, sarcasm in his voice.

"You can't blame him, Harry, it's a big brother thing," Ginny said.

I could swear that I just said that, Harry thought to himself. "It's alright, Ron will be back in a second with the sandwiches and we can eat. I'm starved."

"Ditto."

Ron walked in with a serving plate that was piled with ham sandwiches. Harry, Ron, and Ginny each took one and ate it. They discussed different possibilities for new Hogwarts courses, as well as how Hermione was doing, her letters were reassuring, but not altogether perfect, she had made at least one grammatical error in each, a scary thought for Hermione. They talked about Quidditch and the new lineup for the Chudley Cannons, and eventually cleared the plate of ham and cheese as they spoke for nearly and hour. Periodically, Bill and Charley would pass through the room and say 'hello', just to go out again quickly. Ultimately, Mrs. Weasley came in and took the serving platter away, giving them instructions to make sure they clean the house for Fleur and Hermione's arrival. Ron protested since they were both 'part of the family', but Mrs. Weasley insisted, since the wedding was so close anyway, and they might as well get a head start.

They all rose up out of their seats. Ron went upstairs to tidy his room and Harry followed suit. He still hadn't properly unpacked and his things were strewn about the room, his trunk in a complete mess. As they marched upward Harry saw Ginny make her way to the broom closet to get the necessary cleaning supplies for the living room.

"I'd give my life to protect her, Ron," he said, never breaking eye contact with her beautiful figure.

"I know, Harry. I know."

Once they reached the top landing Ron opened his door and they both stood there surveying the disaster site that was their room.

SP

After three hours of cleaning Ron and Harry had finally managed to make the room look acceptable. What was left in Harry's trunk was well organized, being as he charmed it to have several compartments like Mad-Eye Moody's. His books were all lined up in order of subject, and then title. Anyone could easily tell his best subject because his defense section was much larger than the others. He had taken several of the intermediate level defense books from the Room of Requirement during his fifth year. He had never really used them much, but he figured that he might have use for them someday. His clothes were tucked in his trunk as well, but not in the same compartment as the books. Everything else was in the third chamber of the trunk. All his dark detectors and other magical gadgets were there. His letters and other personal things were in a secret fourth chamber that required him to touch it with his wand, and his wand only. It was really an easy concept. He then looked around the rest of the room.

Ron had organized his things as he always did. He threw everything into the drawers they should be in, and everything else got shoved into the closet.

After several moments of studying the spoils of their hard work they sat down on their beds for some well deserved rest.

"Well, that took all bloody day," Ron said.

"Yeah, it did take a long time didn't it?" Harry responded.

"Definitely," Ron answered. "And for what? It's not like anyone is going to come up here. Eh... whatever, at least we have a chance to talk about how we are going to go about finding and destroying the horcruxes."

"You're right, I should tell you what I've got in mind, but shouldn't we wait until Hermione gets here?"

"I guess... but, at least tell me what we are going to do about dueling. I mean, Ginny was right. I don't think she's twice the dueler I am, but she's just as good as all of us, and knowing how we duel, a large group of Death Eaters could take us out no problem. Every time we've been up against them, we've had help from the Order. I don't think we could take them in our current state, and from what you told me about how the fake horcrux was protected, we will never be able to pull off getting close to one even if we can find one."

"I know what you mean, we definitely aren't ready yet, but I've got a bunch of the books from the Room of Requirement. We did already look through them for good stuff, but we might find something new if we check again. Something we didn't think we would need before."

"That would make sense," Ron said.

"It's the only thing I could come up with, but I bet Hermione will come up with something better," Harry responded.

"I expect she'll want to just train like we did before the Tri-Wizard Tournament."

"Yeah, but she knows we will need much stronger spells. We might even need to learn some dark magic, just to keep us alive."

"Well, I'm not practicing it on you guys!" Ron said, surprised by Harry's daring. "Besides, there has to be some sort of magic that isn't dark and is still strong enough to beat them."

"I don't know, Ron. There's a lot of really strong dark magic, and there is only so much in the way of good magic. I mean all we can really do is stun them. We do have a few curses, but nothing like they have."

"You're right, Harry. We just need to figure something out."

"We will ask Hermione if she can find out that curse Dumbledore used when he was forced out of Hogwarts in fifth year. It was really powerful. It was silver in color if I remember correctly," Harry said.

"Alright, we'll do that," Ron agreed, quickly followed by, "Seems, like it will be closer than you think, I just heard someone apparate."

"You can hear that?" Harry asked.

"When you have people in and out of your house all the time, a small apparition noise catches your attention," Ron said, "kind of like a timid knock on the door."

"Oh..."

"Well lets go greet her," Ron suggested. "I sure hope I pass my test the second time around."

"Ha, I don't even get to take it until my birthday. I don't know if I'm even going to bother," Harry said, as they walked down the stairs.

"Rather go crazy trying to find all those horcruxes on a broom, Harry?" Ron asked sarcastically.

"Maybe you're right," he answered, "I guess I'll just have to take it that day."

"Well, I'm taking it before then, I want to get some good practice in before we leave."

"I thought we were taking it together!" Harry said, mock outraged.

"I'm not waiting that long, mate! I need the time to practice before we get hunting."

"You do that, sure wish I could, but I'm not putting a delay on our trip," Harry said, "Oh no, what about Ginny, I don't know how we are going to get her side-along apparating... I can hardly disapparate by myself!"

"Don't worry, Harry. Hermione can handle that for a while."

They continued down to the bottom landing where they saw Hermione in deep conversation with Mrs. Weasley and Ginny. They were huddled around the coffee table talking about something very important. Harry then overhead the words "wedding" and "colors" and suddenly knew it wasn't as important as it seemed. Hermione was flipping a page when her eye caught Ron's face.

"RON!" she squealed as she ran to him, giving him a big kiss as they came to embrace each other.

Harry saw his friends there, holding each other and kissing, and thought to himself that their little excursion into the dark unknown was going to be quite the trip.

A/N - Thank you everyone for waiting so patiently as this one was in the works... Ch4 is probably going to come along slowly too... but the next few after than should come almost all at once. College applications are driving me insane, not to mention 5 AP classes and 2 SCALE classes... its going to be an interesting year... but I promise that this story will continue!